Incredible! The Be More Chill movie script has been revised and is going out to studios now. I hope to have an announcement soon about the sale of the film; remember, this is the book as envisioned by Steve Pink, writer of High Fidelity and director of the forthcoming film Accepted, and backed by the Weitz Brothers, producers of American Pie! Yes, I know we're not on IMDB yet, but God willing (or somebody willing; I don't know how far God gets in Hollywood) we will be soon.

05-23-2006

Steve Pink, Be More Chill screenwriter, has sent me a completed draft of the script! This is huge! Next steps: getting it sold. Support Steve by seeing his movie Accepted, premiering August 11, 2006. It stars Justin Long, better known these days as the younger guy in the iLife ads. (Strangely enough, the older guy is my high school English teacher's wife, writer John Hodgman.) The better Accepted does, the easier it'll be to sell Be More Chill. But we're pretty confident about it.

05-03-2006

The Be More Chill movie script is 90% completed! Auteur Steve Pink, whose directorial debut, Accepted, bows in theaters this August, is putting the finishing touches on the thing and it's looking extra-special fantastic. See Accepted this summer (Lewis Black, Ann Cusack) to support Steve and start prepping--a Be More Chill movie could be coming as soon as 2007.

02-05-2006

Be on the lookout for Steve Pink's movie Accepted, in theaters soon. Steve is the screenwriting and directing force behind the Be More Chill movie, which is currently in development. We are close to finishing the screenplay and will be finished by April. We are experimenting with one major change to the book. Steve felt constrained by the age of the characters--it turns out that a lot of the book is R-rated and getting a studio to place it in high school is pretty difficult (the nipple ring scene, etc.). To put the humor where we want to be, we are making Jeremy in his early 20s instead of in high school. Don't kill me, it works. Same story, only now the squip is a little more serious--it persuades Jeremy to max out his credit cards, doublecross his coworkers and have lots of sex. The results are sparkling and I can't wait to get them on a screen for you! Steve and I are contributing scenes to the final product now.

Jessie Eisenberg from Roger Dodger and The Village and a bunch of other movies read the book on CD.

The illustrious editor A. A. Allessi read on the cassettes for old skool heads.

The CD = unabridged. The casettes = abridged.

I never listened to the CD because it was just too disembodying an experience.

I could never even find the cassette.

Be More Chill OR Teen Angst? Naaah... - Philippines

August 3, 2005

Teen Angst? Naaah... made its way to the Philippines after the Random House edition was published in 2002. Be More Chill was supposed to be put out in the Philippines around summer 2004 (with the same publisher & cover as the US edition). However, things got delayed and even though I was told that the book was in "National Bookstore" chains, no one could find it. But now it's there. Three hundred copies, they tell me.

The people from the Philippines who have read my books have been incredibly supportive. Thank you so much guys. Like, Filipino appreciation vibes.

A Filipino student named Miguel Michael Barnes translated the first part of Teen Angst? Naaah... into Tagalog, the indigenous Filipino language.

Be More Chill - Israel

Not Published Yet

In Israel, Be More Chill will be published in Hebrew by Matar Publishing.

There's no pub date yet, but this should clear things up for the person from Israel who emailed us asking if his squip would speak to him in English or Hebrew.

Be More Chill - France

August 2006

In France, Be More Chill has been published by Gallimard for in their "Scripto" series of books.

In the past, the Scripto series has included books by Joyce Carol Oates and Melvin Burgess!

It took a while, but the French version of Be More Chill has been published! This French guy at my parent's office, Patrick, every time I see him, he goes, "Ned, when is your book coming out? Maison Gallimard! [the d = silent] This is one of the best publishing houses in France! Maison Gallimard!" And now he has a copy of the book. So awesome.

Rachel
of FL
says: My grandma bought me this book for my birthday and I thought it was absolutely fantastic. I saved it till school started (8-14-06) and i read it all week the first week of school. Instead of paying attention in class i read ur book instead. Sad I know but it was so good i couldn't put it down. Your book has my friends grasping for it but I don't know what i would do if i lost it. This book was great! oh yeah, favorite part. hmm thats a toughie. It would have to be the part wherehe goes to the party and takes ecstacy and the spuip speaks spanish to him. that is absolutely hilarious. anyway great novels IKOAFS was great to. we read that one in my class last year for an asignment and that was my favorite assignment all year! ~*~Rachel

Rachel's myspace

Jack
of CA
says: my favorite part of BE MORE CHILL is when he stops in the middle of the play and tells Christine about his affection towards her. I was so pissed cuz it was so stupid for him to listen to the squip and think that Christine would some how fall in love with him.

Brandon
of CA
says: i have two favorite parts in the book but heres one of them. When jeremy first gets the squip and the squip is teaching him about proper posture. and then jeremy says to the squip "i feel gay" and the squip says "the gayer it feels the better".

Brandon's myspace

Jonathan
of AR
says: I just finished reading your latest one, that was hilarious, favorite part: near the end where Craig was making out with Noelle and he says " it really does feel like a cheek" between that and some of the beginning: wonderful . And Be More Chill, gotta love the parties and when he first gets the pill, and let me see, Teen Angst? Naaah... I loved the prom part, the parts of it when you talk about your family and stuff.

Alexis
of VA
says: I was in the Barnes and Noble in Richmond, Virginia the day you came to sign books. However, I was there about four hours too early. There was a massive display of your work and I picked this book up and bought it. It looked like an interesting, funny book of things that had actually happened to you. I did want to read it in four hours and come back and ask you all kinds of questions, but that didn't work out too well. I love the book so far. I'm only about a third of the way done but it has made me laugh out loud more than a few times. I'm going to look forward to finishing it but at the same time, not. This book has me reading it every free time I have and I love your writing style. So this is a thank you and a praise all in one. Come back to the Richmond area soon if you can. Keep on truckin' too.

Alexis's blog

Alexis's myspace

Rowell
of RI
says: My favorite part of Be More Chill, is when Mr. Reyes speaks in his falsetto voice "Maaaaaa!", when I try to imagine it, I can't help laughing. This is my favorite book. No Doubt. Im going to try Jimmy Heere's squip moves on some of the ladies.. :) "Maaaa!"

Rowell's myspace

Violet
of NY
says: my favorite part of the book was... oh, let's see... THE WHOLE THING, aka my LIFE! I live in Park Slope, took the Stuy Test, attend Pure Energy Martial Arts (Tessa Gordon's still there), and have done numerous other things that you describe in Teen Angst?Naah...
Never have i identified more with a boook than with this one. I read books for escape, but it's like escaping right back into... you guessed it, My Life!

Kathleen
of United Kingdom
says: I didnt have a favorite part of this book, it was all amazing, i know that I am going to read this book over and over.

Kathleen's website

Matthew
of New Zealand
says: My favourite aspect of both Be More Chill and Teen Angst? Naaah is that the parents (particularly the dads) are portrayed as decent people who are even funny and understanding, rather than as the hysterical losers/ screw up parents that are so ubiquitous in books aimed at young adults.

Janine
of CA
says: I would say my favourite part would be the whole Aunt Linda
conversation. I mean, I can totally relate. My family acts the same
way. And its the plot revealer... where he's just really honest (...and kinda harsh) about how he sees himself. It's the point where the book
really takes a surrealist turn.